The word “run” in the headline is chosen very carefully. Developer Christina Kelly managed to get Swords and Soldiers up and running on the Nexus Q, but the game is not actually playable. Without a touchscreen or any other way to actually control the title, there’s not much to do besides look at the splash screen. Still, the fact that in under 24 hours Google’s new streaming appliance has already made to fire up unapproved apps bodes well for its future with the hacker community. Once the device gets in the hands of more devs we imagine it’ll only a matter of time before someone figures out a way to get Hulu or Netflix running on it, with your Android phone acting as the remote.
Google revealed a lot at Google I/O: a shimmering tablet at a good price, a sci-fi home theater orb, seriously sophisticated search, and Jelly Beans. It also revealed an unsettling lack of human understanding. More »
The Google Nexus Q is a home media player that was just unveiled yesterday during the Google IO keynote. It is an Google experiment (in a crowded market) that is well designed, attractive and hard to build. Interestingly, the Google Nexus Q is also an experiment in USA-based manufacturing. At the bottom of the device, there’s a sticker which says “Made in the USA”. This is almost symbolic for a company that has had strained relations with the Chinese government.
Talking to the NYTimes, Andy Rubin (the Android business General Manager) said that Goole wanted to try manufacturing “something” in the USA, and thought ‘Why don’t we try it and see what happens?’ The google Nexus Q is an ideal test candidate as it is hard to build, but quantities should be low at the same time. (more…)
Take that, conventional wisdom! The oddball Google Nexus Q is made in the good ol’ US of A, proving that electronics can be assembled outside of China.
This fun little tidbit wasn’t mentioned during the Nexus Q’s announcement yesterday. Sure enough, a label on the bottom of the device says “Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A.” That little label is also why the device costs so much.
Speaking to the NYT Andy Rubin explained that making the device in the U.S. is a bit of an experiment. “Why don’t we try it and see what happens,” he said. Rubin went on to state that Google is not in a sort of crusade with this project. In fact Google hasn’t revealed the actual Silicon Valley manufacturer nor is it saying where the Q’s components are made.
There was a time when electronics were made in the U.S. Early computer giants such as HP, Dell, even Atari made their products in the U.S. The promise of cheaper labor lured these companies elsewhere.
But things are changing again. The cost of labor in China is rising quickly. Plus, there is a large advantage to having your manufacturer literally down the road from the designers. Instead of spending weeks in China, engineers and designers can drive 10 minutes down the road to solve an issue.
The Q itself seems to be a bit of an experiment as well. Google revealed the product yesterday at its yearly developers conference. Basically, the Q is jukebox which pulls media from Google’s cloud services. An Android phone or tablet tells the Q what media to play, and the Q grabs the media from online. This is fundamentally different from Apple’s Airplay service which produces the same result, but instead streams the media from the mobile device itself. The Q is a bit strange, and with a price of $299, it’s a hard sell for what’s essentially a set of features that should be built into Google’s other streaming product, the floundering Google TV.
The Q’s higher price is a direct result of assembling it in the U.S., says Google. The company hopes to drop the price over time as the product volume increases. But the question remains, will consumers, even American consumers, spend $299 on a device with a very limited feature set even if it’s made in the U.S.?
Jelly Bean, a Nexus tablet, even skydiving Google Glass: the Google IO keynote very nearly had it all, but the company’s decision to leave Google TV off the agenda in favor of the Nexus Q was a low. The zinc Epcot of Android was billed as a communal media player, and its presence on stage when Google TV was conspicuously absent undoubtedly led to confusion as to what its exact purpose was, especially given streaming favorites like Netflix and Hulu are missing. Google TV had been, in the run-up to IO, one of the topics most people expected to see covered, and its omission does not bode well.
At $299 the Nexus Q is, as many have observed, not a cheap device, and while Google has made much of its “designed and made in the USA” credentials, it’s a strategy that’s at odds with the “cut the costs” approach of the Nexus 7. If Google’s target is Sonos – admittedly audio-only – then it failed to demonstrate how a multi-zone Nexus Q setup would play out. If it’s a challenge to Apple TV, however, then it’s difficult to see how Google can justify charging three times the amount.
The biggest frustration is that the Nexus Q is already obviously capable of much, much more. Within hours of having access to the first units, Android developers have already managed to get games running, turning the Q into an open-source console of sorts. That’s just the start of things, no doubt; efforts are already underway to unlock what is, behind the curvaceous shell, a Galaxy Nexus without a display.
Google Nexus Q hands-on:
Now, it would’ve been premature for Google to reveal all of its future plans for the Nexus Q, but it did the device a disservice with a presentation that failed to dress the orb in suitable context. The Jelly Bean message was clear: the OS runs faster and smoother than Ice Cream Sandwich, brings a voice search Siri alternative, and tackles fragmentation with the promise of earlier access for new versions for manufacturers. The Nexus 7 news left nobody in any confusion as to the tablet’s selling points; even the Google Glass announcement, with exact details still in relatively short supply, did what it needed to.
For the Nexus Q, though, we had a fancy video in the style of Apple’s promos, an awkward and overly-long demonstration of how several people can manage a shared playlist, and little in the way of context. Even just promising “like Nexus phones, there’s hugely broad potential for the Nexus Q” could’ve been enough to prevent most of the post-keynote confusion.
Instead, the functionality and longer-term intentions were left vague, and without any mention of Google TV it was difficult to see how the two products are meant to sit together. That’s disappointing, after Google worked so hard to improve the latest iteration of its smart TV product; particularly if you’re Sony and Vizio, and announced second-gen Google TV boxes this week in the run-up to Google’s event. Hopefully, it means Google TV will have its moment in the spotlight today, albeit late, at the second day IO keynote.
Google’s IO 2012 keynote has been and gone, and while the developer event as a whole isn’t over, you can certainly tell where the focus is by what made it onto the opening agenda. I’d already laid out my expectations for IO over at the Google Developers Blog, but there have been some surprises along the way too.
Jelly Bean was the obvious inclusion, and Google balanced its enthusiasm about the new Android version from a technological perspective – with encrypted apps and the perfectly named “Project Butter” for smoothing out the UI – with features that will make more of a difference for end-users. The new notifications system should make a major difference to Android usability, meaning you spend less time jumping between apps, while the Google Voice Search should present an interesting challenge to Siri.
I’ll need to spend some proper time with “Google now” before I can decide whether it brings any real worth to the table. Proper understanding of context is sorely missing from the mobile device market- our handsets can do no shortage of tasks, but they still wait for us to instruct them – though there are potentially significant privacy concerns which I think Google will likely be picked up on sooner rather than later.
The Nexus 7 is a double-hitter of a device, the tablet response not only to concerns that Android developers were opting out of slate-scale app creation, but to Amazon’s strongly-selling Kindle Fire. $200 is a very competitive price, without cutting on specifications, and Jelly Bean comes with all the bells and whistles you need for a tablet OS.
Of course, OS support wasn’t what let Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich down, it was the significant absence of any meaningful tablet application support from third-party developers. The Nexus 7′s low price should help get test units into coders’ hands, at least, though it will take more than a fanfare this week to decide whether Android can catch up on larger screen content with Apple’s iPad.
As for the Nexus Q, I’ll take some more convincing on that. $299 is a lot for a device that also needs an Android phone or tablet in order to work, and Google’s awkward presentation didn’t do a particularly good job of explaining why you’d rather have a Nexus Q than, say, an Apple TV, a Sonos system, or even just a cheap DLNA streamer.
The big surprise today was Google Glasses. Sergey Brin’s “surprise” interruption of the IO presentation, sporting Project Glass himself and then summoning a daredevil army of similarly-augmented skydivers, stunt bikers, abseilers and others onto the stage was a masterstroke of entertainment, and you could feel the enthusiasm and excitement in the auditorium. That the segment ended with a pre-order promise – albeit one at a not-inconsiderable $1,500 – was a suitably outlandish high-point, though we’ll have to wait until early 2013 to actually see Google make good on those investments.
Google Glasses are a long way off. More pressing is how the Nexus 7 holds up to the Kindle Fire (and, though it may not be quite a direct competitor, the iPad) and how quickly manufacturers can get Jelly Bean out to existing devices. Google may be putting a new system of early Android update access into place to speed that process for future iterations, but it looks to have come too late for Jelly Bean updates. We’ll have more from Google IO 2012 over the rest of the week.
Google unveiled the Nexus Q streaming device yesterday alongside the Nexus 7. Taking a look at the specs, you might see an all too familiar processor, with the device featuring a dual-core OMAP4460 CPU – the same chip that’s inside the Galaxy Nexus – along with PowerVR SGX540 graphics and 1GB of RAM. Google also hinted at the Q’s hackability thanks to the inclusion of a microUSB port, and it looks like developers are starting to see what the device can really do.
Christina Kelly, an Android app developer, has managed to get Swords and Soldiers to start on the device, although that’s apparently where the fun ends. The game won’t actually run, and even if it did, the lack of touch controls would put a damper on things pretty quickly. It does mean, however, that the Nexus Q is a flexible platform that developers can have some fun with.
The fact that the orb is running Android and has an architecture comparable to the Galaxy Nexus gives developers a lot of freedom, as well as the opportunity to explore the possibilities of the device. Kelly notes that while Google TV devices also run a version of Android, porting an app over to the platform is a difficult affair.
Google has dubbed the Nexus Q a social streaming media player. The orb can only be controlled using Android devices, with content streamed from Google’s content services via the cloud instead of across a local network. Users can also create social playlists, adding songs or videos to be queued up and played up the device. The Nexus Q doubles as a 25 watt amplifier that you can plug your speakers into, and plugs into your TV via HDMI.
What you see here is arguably be the coolest thing on display at Google I/O 2012 — an 8-foot, 300-pound Nexus Q replica (complete with LED ring visualizer) mounted on a robot arm. This interactive installation called Kinetisphere was designed and fabricated by San Francisco-based Bot & Dolly and is controlled by three stations each consisting of — wait for it — a Nexus Q device and a Nexus 7 tablet. How meta is that? One station controls the height of the sphere, another its angle, and a third lets you pick the pattern displayed on the LED ring. Of course, it’s all carefully synchronized to music for maximum effect.
We spent a few minutes talking with Jeff Linnell of Bot & Dolly about what went into the making of Kinetisphere. As it turns out, there’s a lot more to the installation than a Kuka industrial robot, fiberglass, plywood and steel railing. In addition to using the Nexus Q and Nexus 7, the company combined its expertise in motion control and automation with Google’s Android ADK 2012, Autodesk‘s Maya and even Linux. Take a look at our gallery below then hit the break for our video interview and a lovely behind-the-scenes clip.
Just in case you still think that Google is a software company, what happened earlier yesterday morning has debunked that myth once and for all. I know, Google has churned out Google-branded smartphones in the past, where those were manufactured by HTC first, followed by Samsung as part of the Nexus range. However, what you have here this time around would be a hardware that was built right in the bowels of Google’s headquarters itself – resulting in this rounded beauty known as the Nexus Q.
Just what is the Nexus Q? It is a sphere, basically, but that does not mean it is down and out for the count. Do not despise small beginnings, literally with the Nexus Q. The Nexus Q is said to be the focal point of Android as well as Google Play, allowing one to stream not only music, but video straight into your home. You will be able to control it using an Android-powered smartphone or a similar tablet.
As mentioned earlier, this was specially designed and engineered by the team over at Google. The Nexus Q is tiny enough not to look out of place in just about any home, where the main purpose of it is to be plugged into the best speakers and TVs around your home. Touted to be the first ever social streaming device, similar to a cloud connected jukebox, it allows everyone who drops by your place to basically brings their own personal music collection to the party. First out in the US, you will be able to place a pre-order for the Nexus Q from Google Play for $299 a pop. Shipping commences sometime from the middle of next month onwards. Of course, other territories will also be on the receiving end of the Nexus Q, but we will just have to wait for an official announcement on the release dates.
Just what other kind of hardware specifications does the Nexus Q carry? We are looking at connectivity options that include Optical audio (S/PDIF), Ethernet, micro HDMI, and microUSB. You will find the same kind of processing power as the Galaxy Nexus, and the entire device tips the scales at just 2 pounds. The rotating top dome functions as a volume control, and it is rounded off by 1GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory, all running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Phew! On the heels of big events from Apple and Microsoft, Sergey and co. got their time to shine at the Google I/O event this week in San Francisco. The show kicked off with a a keynote that featured insight into Android Jelly Bean, the unveiling of the Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media streaming device, plus some seriously amazing demos of Project Glass, among others. Was the two-hour-and-change press conference enough to push Google out in front of the competition? Check out our thoughts after the break.
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The Google Nexus Q is a home media player that was just unveiled yesterday during the Google IO keynote. It is an Google experiment (in a crowded market) that is well designed, attractive and hard to build. Interestingly, the Google Nexus Q is also an experiment in USA-based manufacturing. At the bottom of the device, there’s a sticker which says “Made in the USA”. This is almost symbolic for a company that has had strained relations with the Chinese government.
Just in case you still think that Google is a software company, what happened earlier yesterday morning has debunked that myth once and for all. I know, Google has churned out Google-branded smartphones in the past, where those were manufactured by HTC first, followed by Samsung as part of the Nexus range. However, what you have here this time around would be a hardware that was built right in the bowels of Google’s headquarters itself – resulting in this rounded beauty known as the Nexus Q.
